Court Upholds Cia Right To Keep Documents Secret

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled today that the CIA has broad discretion to withhold documents from the public, including those that do not deal with sensitive issues of national security.

The justices, in a unanimous decision, said the intelligence agency legally denied a request for information about the experimental drug program known as MKULTRA conducted in the 1950s and 1960s.

Little is known about the controversial program, initiated in response to U.S. concern over foreign brainwashing techniques, because most of the records from the program were destroyed in 1973.

The program became a source of concern when it was reported several MKULTRA projects involved experiments in which researchers administered dangerous drugs to unwitting human subjects. At least two people died as a result of MKULTRA testing.

Today`s decision reversed the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which had ruled intelligence sources only could be kept secret if it was unlikely the CIA could obtain the information by promising the sources confidentiality.

In other action, the court:

(BU) Struck down 8-0, with Justice Lewis Powell abstaining, an Alabama law aimed at depriving black people of voting rights by permitting disenfranchisement for small crimes involving ``moral turpitude.``

(BU) Upheld, 8-0, the right of the Navajo Indians to tax oil and gas leases on their reservation without the approval of the secretary of interior.

(BU) In an 8-0 ruling, held that an employee cannot bypass a labor contract grievance procedure by bringing an independent lawsuit against the employer.

Writing for the court in the CIA case, Chief Justice Warren Burger said, ``Congress vested in the director of the Central Intelligence Agency very broad authority to protect all sources of intelligence information.``

``The reasons are too obvious to call for enlarged discussion,`` he said. ``Without such protection the agency would be virtually impotent.``

The dispute over the CIA records began in August 1977, when an attorney and a public research group filed a request, under the Freedom of Information Act, for names of researchers and other information associated with the drug program.

HIGHLIGHTS

IN A UNANIMOUS decision, ruled the CIA legally denied a request for information about the experimental drug program known as MKULTRA.

STRUCK DOWN 8-0, with Justice Lewis Powell not participating, an Alabama law aimed at depriving black people of voting rights by permitting disenfranchisement for small crimes involving ``moral turpitude.``

RULED 8-0 that the Navajo Indians have a right to tax oil and gas leases on their reservation without approval from the interior secretary. Justice Lewis Powell did not participate.

IN A WISCONSIN case, held 8-0 that an employee cannot bypass a labor contract grievance procedure by bringing an independent lawsuit against the employer.